Aspen

Snowpack

Matt Huber · Feb 5, 2019 · Aspen

View on map

Weather

The visibility was limited mainly from the amount of blowing snow, a few moments of clarity gave enough visibility to see large new cornice's on the northeast-facing side of the ridgeline. Temperatures were in the high teens throughout the trip with light snowfall. A period of intense graupel lasted for about ten minutes.

Snowpack

The total snowpack is closing in on the three meter mark at 11,000 feet, which is one meter deeper than January 20 when I dug here last. Significant collapsing and whumpfing as riders were in Marble Bowl today was reported to me second hand. From the surface down about one meter, the snowpack is relatively homogenous except for an almost unidentifiable 1 centimeter graupel layer. This layer produced moderate propagating extended column results. ECTP 14.